John Wallace HOUSTON, Congress, DE (1814-1896)

HOUSTON, John Wallace, (uncle of Robert Griffith Houston), a Representative from Delaware; born in Concord, Sussex County, Del., May 4, 1814; attended the country schools and Newark Academy, and was graduated from Yale College in 1834; studied law in Dover, Del.; was admitted to the bar in 1837; moved to Georgetown, Del., in 1839 and commenced the practice of law; secretary of state of Delaware 1841-1844; elected as a Whig to the Twenty-ninth, Thirtieth, and Thirty-first Congresses (March 4, 1845-March 3, 1851); chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Thirtieth Congress); was not a candidate for renomination in 1850; appointed associate judge of the superior court of Delaware May 4, 1855; member of the peace conference of 1861, held in Washington, D.C., in an effort to devise means to prevent the impending war; retired from the bench in 1893; died in Georgetown, Del., April 26, 1896; interment in the Presbyterian Cemetery, Lewes, Del.

Source: Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1771-Present